The Victorian period experienced, among many other paradoxes, an ongoing tension between science and spirituality. Bearing the legacy of the ＂Enlightenment Rationalism＂ and the Cartesian division between ＂matter＂ ...The Victorian period experienced, among many other paradoxes, an ongoing tension between science and spirituality. Bearing the legacy of the ＂Enlightenment Rationalism＂ and the Cartesian division between ＂matter＂ and ＂mind＂ since the eighteenth century, the Victorian minds had to deal with a contemporary world rapidly unfolding new discoveries in geology, astronomy, biology, and medical sciences. However, these could not completely erase the spiritual belief from the human mind. Rather they sought to reshape their codes in terms of ＂alternative sciences＂ like occultism and metaphysical psychiatry （pre-Freudian）. This paper seeks to explore the characterisation of the ＂metaphysical＂ physician in two novels by Wilkie Collins and Marie Corelli, showing how these figures play a crucial role in negotiating the tensions between science and spiritualism.展开更多
文摘The Victorian period experienced, among many other paradoxes, an ongoing tension between science and spirituality. Bearing the legacy of the ＂Enlightenment Rationalism＂ and the Cartesian division between ＂matter＂ and ＂mind＂ since the eighteenth century, the Victorian minds had to deal with a contemporary world rapidly unfolding new discoveries in geology, astronomy, biology, and medical sciences. However, these could not completely erase the spiritual belief from the human mind. Rather they sought to reshape their codes in terms of ＂alternative sciences＂ like occultism and metaphysical psychiatry （pre-Freudian）. This paper seeks to explore the characterisation of the ＂metaphysical＂ physician in two novels by Wilkie Collins and Marie Corelli, showing how these figures play a crucial role in negotiating the tensions between science and spiritualism.
